Sliding shoe for furniture-legs and other uses.



A. B. DISS.

SLIDING SHOE FOR FURNITURE LEGS AND OTHER USES.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 14. I914.

1,228,759.. Patented June 5,1917.

4 Slave/M106 1142) attouw I I, I

I To all whom it may concern:

UNITED. STATES PATENT OFFICE.

AiJBEBT B. DISS, OF NEWARK, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR T0 UNIVERSAL CASTER 8c FOUNDRY COMPANY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

SLIDING SHOE FOB FURNITURE-LEGS AND OTHER USES.

Be it known that I, ALBERT B. DISS, a resident of Newark, in the State of New Jersey, manufacturer, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Sliding Shoes for Furniture-Legs and other Uses, of which the following is a specification, accompanied by drawmgs.

- It is frequently desired to mount'bedsteads and other furniture on slides or sliding'shoes instead of wheel casters. Slidin shoes of glass are, for many conditions, pre

erable to metallic shoes, because of smooth- .ness, resistance to corrosion, cleanly appear- The present invention provides an improved construction of sliding shoe suitable particularly for legs of bedsteads and other furniture, which is simple, eflicient, durableand reliable in use, and which does not readily break nor get out of order, and is comparatively inexpensive to manufacture and is easily attacheduto and removed from the The invention will be readily understood from the following description and claims.

I In the drawings,

Figure 1 is a side view, partly in section, and partly broken away to show details, of the preferred embodiment of the invention as applied to a tubular leg;

Fig. 2 is a top view of the same, showing I the leg in section;

Fig. 3 shows another form of the inven- I tion, without certain features of the construction shown in Fig. 1.

Referring first to Figs. land 2, at 10 is shown a portion of a tubular leg or bedpost.

' At 11 is shown the shoe proper, preferably of colorless transparent glass, though in designating glass I do 'not wish to exclude the substitution of other suitable compositions. The shoe 11 should have a very slightly cambored or convex lower face, being flat or substantially flat 'at a comparatively small central area and rounded at'the periphery, as illustrated. The upper face of the shoal].

Speciileation of Letters Patent. Application fled April 1!, 1914. Serial No. 281,728.

Patented June 5, 1917.

is provided with an annular ovdrhangin shoulder or head 12, by which it is attache and a central recess 13, affording a space for the riveted lower end of a pintle. Attachmg plate 15 fits upon the top of the shoe, and is provided with teeth 16 around its edge, which are turned downward and inward upon and beneath the overhangingshoulder 12, so as to rigidly secure'the attachmg plate to the shoe by means of its nturned teeth. The pintle 20 is rigidly yomed to the attaching plate 15 by extendmg through a perforation in the center of the plate and having an enlargement above the plate and a riveted head 21 beneath the plate, as shown. The upper end of the pintle is provided with projections 22, forming an en argement or head for securing the pintle to the spring frame or socket. The

leg supporting plate 25 surrounds the pintle and carries the weight of the leg 10. This leg supporting plate preferably serves to relatively center the leg and the lower end of the pintle, but the spring frame may serve this purpose alone or jointly with the leg supporting plate. For so centering the leg, the leg supporting plate is provided with an annular shoulder 26, internally fitting the lower end of the leg. The leg supporting plate is provided with a downturned member, which is here shown as an integral part of it and which extends outward from beneath the foot of the leg and is curved downward and then inward in a graceful curve extending around and thus substantially housing the shoulder 12 of'the' shoe and the attaching teeth 16.

Between the leg supporting plate and the attaching plate are interposed ball bearings 31, which may, as shown, be provided with an upper annular ball cup or ball race 30, separate from the leg supporting plate 25, and loosely secured around the pintle by upsetting the metal of the pintle to form 'a projecting flange above the inner edge of the ball race. To accommodate ball bearings and at the same time strengthen the'leg supporting plate, the plate is preferably domed at its center, as shown. The weight of the le and leg supporting plate bears on the ball earings, the balls 31 of which in turn bear directly upon the attaching plate 15 or on the collar on the pintle or both.

Above the leg supporting plate there is secured tothe pintle a spring frame 32, which fits around the pintle beneath, and is secured by, the projections or head 22, and approximately fits-and centers the pintle at its upper end and the interior of the tubular leg. The expansible side members .of the frame act frictionally on the interior of the tubular leg to hold the frame, and consequently the intle, in the 1e and thereby se cure the sli e to the leg. he lower end of the frame may also ap roximately fit and center the pintle and t e leg, although it pintle 201 has a shoulder 202, on which the leg supporting plate 250 directly rests. The leg supporting plate is shown with a shoulder 260 for centering the leg and with an ornamental upturned periphery forming a legmount 251, which, if present, can be made to fit the exterior of the 1e and also serve the function of centering t e leg externally; and the attaching plate 15 and shoe 11 are the same as in Fig. 1, the pintle being riveted to the plate in the same manner.

The operation of the sliding shoe will now be evident without further explanation. It will be seen that the manner of attaching the glass or other shoe to the pintle is a very secure one and, at the same time, it is designed to avoid danger of chipping or breaking the glass, or other brittle substance of which the shoe may be composed, under shocks and strains that inevitably occur in sliding furniture over uneven floor surfaces. This shoe provides a broad, nearly fiat surface, suitable for acting on carpets or rugs without injury thereto. The shoe is free to turn with its pintle when subjected to greater sliding friction on one side than the other, thereby both lessening the frictional resistance and relieving the device of twisting strains.

Although I have shown the invention in a form suitable for use with tubular legs, it will be understood that the shoe, pintle and attachin plate are applicable also to Wooden legs an to various caster sockets for the pintles of detachable casters.

I claim the following:

1. The combination of a sliding-shoe having a central recess therein, an attaching plate fitted and secured to the shoe, a pintle rigidly joined to the said attaching plate, said pintle havin an enlargement above the plate and a riveted head beneath the same in said recess, a leg-supporting plate surrounding the pintle, means for securing the pintle within the leg and permitting its rotation during conditions of use, and ball bearings between the leg-supporting plate and the attaching plate, the leg-supporting plate being domed at its central portion to accommodate said ball bearings.

2. The combination of a sliding shoe having an overhanging curved shoulder and a central recess, and an attaching plate therefor provided with a pintle extending through the plate and riveted fixedly thereto with its lower end enlarged and received withinthe said recess in the shoe, said attaching plate having a series of teeth engagin with and beneath said overhanging shoul er, and a leg supporting plate having a downturned edge portion extending around the said attaching plate and means for firictionally attaching all the said parts to a eg.

In testimony whereof I have signed this specification in the resence of two subscribing witnesses this 10th day of April,

ALBERT B. DISS. Witnesses:

HAROLD BINNEY, A. PSGHIERER. 

